that way a parent can watch a child for reactions during the day. you might expect reactions such as a skin rash, hives, vomiting or diarrhea if a child has a food that doesn't agree with him. if you wait much longer than seven or eight month, babies get used to a full liquid diet and may have difficulty adjusting to new textures. it's good to make sure the foods are soft, smooth and small. >> i'm carol costello. thanks for joining me today. we continue now with ashleigh banfield. >> same players, same issues, absolutely different format, whole new ball game. what a show at hofstra university as president obama faced off with mitt romney for what you might call 90 minutes of political fireworks last night. you can be forgiven if you

thought you were watching a showdown because the second presidential debates was worlds away from the first one two weeks ago. this time the president and the governor brought intensity and energy unlike the first time around. the exchanges were bruising. both candidates taking every opportunity to go on the attack. president obama more aggressive, out to make up ground after a flat first performance and mitt romney standing his ground, hoping to keep his momentum going. take a look. >> i don't think anyone really believes that you're a person who is going to be pushing for oil and gas and coal. you'll get your chance in a moment. i'm still speaking. and the answer is -- >> if you're asking me a question -- >> that wasn't a question. it was a statement. >> and the suggestion that anybody on my team, whether the secretary of state, our u.n. ambassador, anybody on my team would play politics or mislead when we've lost four of our own,

governor, is offensive. >> so there you have it. and dana bash had it all, too. she was there to see it all firsthand. i have followed your career. i know you have covered dozens of debates. everybody that i work with, we were trying to establish if we'd ever seen anything as contentious as this. >> no. the answer is no. george will said he was at the very first debate in 1960. he said since then this was immeasurablely the best. whether it's best or worst, it was by far the most fiery. especially for a town hall, going in, talking to the strategists in both camps, people who have prepped candidates for this town hall format, they all said the name of the game is not to do anything abrupt or disconcerting to the voter or viewer back home.

that's what both candidates did big time. >> i heard a lot of people say awkward, uncomfortable, exciting, great television. i'm not sure what to make of this for voters, though. did the messages the candidates needed to bring in get out of that hall and through the tv tube? >> we'll see whether or not it actually sunk in with the people these candidates are trying to get at. i think more the most part both candidates were pretty effective are what they were trying to do big picture. mitt romney, the past four years of the economy has been bad, he did that from the very first answer from the student who asked how he's going to get a job and continue to pay for things. he continued to do that throughout the debate the president got back to where the democrats really wanted him to be, hitting romney as somebody out of touch, somebody who has offshore bank accounts, somebody who is going to make sure that the wealthiest in this

country are going to be the beneficiaries of his economic policies and not others. >> we have landmark moments in all debates. i'm thinking of the make-up moment for president nixon, about president reagan bringing in humor but making a stinging point. is there a moment here where the game is changed? presidential debates going forward are going to be different? >> i think there might be a series of moments in this one. that's why it was so extraordinary, whether it was mitt romney trying to address the issue of inequality or equality and pay for women and talked about binders of women. that's kind of a bumper sticker that people will think is instantly become part of the political lexicon. >> like big bird. this to me -- i didn't know what i was watching. i didn't think i was watching a presidential debate like i'd watched for so many years. i thought i was watching cable news.

>> you were. you were watching cnn. >> but i know what you're saying. i was in the hall. i was watching in person. and i was really surprised, especially watching mitt romney at the beginning when they were debating over energy of all things, really approaching him physically approaching the president physically and then later they were both doing the same thing. they were kind of circling each other. it did feel very, very different. there's no question about it. both of them came really, really determined to do this and there's one important reason i just want to put a pin in it, there are those very, very small number of undecided voters, both of them realize they have to get their bases excited and that's what this is about. >> i'm sure this was fun to watch and cover, maybe they'll become even more fun to cover as

we continue. thank you. >> what a difference a second debate can make. the big question is how is this going to translate into votes for either of these men? look at them, fingers up, getting into each other's grill. each party said their candidate won this. shock about that. a lot of pundits and analysts are saying this is a draw. what do the voters think? they're really all that matter at this point. let's break this down. here are the latest poll numbers from last night. president obama was a the winner according to those who were called. it's important to keep in mind that the president narrowly beat out mr. romney. this is well within the margin of error when you extrapolate the math. the poll numbers are a bit of a mixed bag for both of these candidates. if you need a little more context as to why that is the issue, mr. romney came out the viktor on the key issue, economy, health care, taxes, deficit. he had the lead there. more than half of the debate

watchers felt that mr. romney would better handle the economy and the deficit. this is important because check out this number. get who the debate watchers picked as the stronger leader. there you go. he beat out mr. obama by 3 points but president obama came out the victor in the poll numbers. these are the top google searches, "who's winning the debate," "fact check," look at number three, you heard dana bash refer to it, "binders full of women." weird. i know. there was a point to it. you'll hear about that in a moment. part of romney's response, how he hired qualified women when he was governor of massachusetts was bring me the binders full of

women to choose from. it just might have sounded odd to some out there. and you knew that big bird was going to work his way in there saying "injustice, binders full of women sold for 77 cents at stapl staples, binders full of men selling for $1. i could go on and on. i'm not going to. jessica yellin with so much of this in her head from last night as well and moving on now to where we go from here. clearly some of those numbers that i just put up on the board are good news for the president, some of those numbers are not such good news for the president. so where do these candidates take what happened last night, how it's been chewed up and spat out today and move on to next week? >> reporter: they're looking ahead to the next polling to see how it is digested by voters. here is a sneak peek what's to

come. out of this debate here's what can you expect from the romney campaign. they will continue to go after president obama on changing statements on libya and what sparked those attacks. they believe that wild president obama won the skirmish, may have won the skirmish last night on the exact phrasing he used in the rose garden, there's still many more questions to be answered about the white house's reaction, so expect that to continue as a battle and then expect the romney campaign to also press on the president's pension. on the other side of the aisle, expect president obama to carry forward this discussion on contraception. last night governor romney said that, you know, he is very supportive of women getting access to contraception at their

own discretion. but governor romney supported the amendment which said employers can choose not to carry coverage that includes contraception. so the obama campaign will press on that, that that's a flip flop they'll say and then also the fair pay message because they want to really woo more women voters. >> that that's a glimpse into the future. >> jessica yellin, thank you for that. >> both the president and mitt romney are back on the campaign trail today. president obama will go to ohio and mitt romney will be in virginia. paul ryan will be on the campaign trade today with condoleezza rice.

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of the deductions. >> governor, i understand the stakes here, i understand both of you but i will get run out of town if i don't allow -- >> i just described to you how do i it, with a single number that people can put and they can put their deductions and credits. >> mr. president, we're keeping track, i promise you. >> did you catch that? did you see what happened there? that's something we saw a lot of last night, a lot of like, what? what the heck was going on there? president obama and mitt romney talking over each other, talking over the moderator, nobody can hear a thing. turns out people don't like that. you see those squiggly lines that show on the bottom of the screen that show how people feet about it, in those moments the lines were flatlining. in the moment, in the effort to be heard, the exact opposite was happening.

our guest helped prep president reagan in 1994. frank, first of all, i had a conversation just before you came on the air with dana bash. none of us feel we've never seen anything like this before. we're not sure we loved what we saw. i'm curious to see if you feel viewers and votelers love what they saw. >> it was a very aggressive debate last night. i think there are two things at play here. number one, we're 20 days from the voting and it's a dead even election and you see the stakes involved there. neither man wants to back down or be perceived as backing down. the second thing is that there's been an evolution in the format of these debates over the years. you'll notice that last night there were no restraints on either man. they had a microphone, they could walk all around the stage, they could, as you said, invade the other person's space and they just went at it.

people do seem to like the idea of a more robust candidate-to-candidate interaction. the old way of doing things would have been to have had both of them on opposite sides of the stage at lecterns and a panel of questioners where there is much less opportunity for interaction. so that's just the other side of it. >> it just feels like we've come full circle until cable news and debates as well. once upon a time everybody liked their news from con cite aronkiw they seem to like john beck. i want our viewers to look at some the material they were watching last night but i want to draw your attention to the lines and what happens when things get ugly. >> in the last four years you cut permits on federal lands and waters in half. >> not true, governor romney. >> how much did you cut them by then?

>> governor, we have produced more oil. >> no, how much did you cut licenses and permits on federal lands and waters? >> governor romney, this is what we did. >> i had a question. how much did you cut them by? how much did you cut them by? >> i'm happy to answer the question. >> i think could you see it as well as i could see it. there's what you call a flatline and that in hospital speak is not healthy. if you were prepping debate candidates now, frank, would you recommend that this works because you can fire up your base this way and get out the vote or would you say, you know, i think we can take a different tack and even get some of those undecideds we might need. >> debates should be about trying to get undecideds. you have such an enormous audience and a lot of these viewers are occasional voters at best and this is your best opportunity to reach them. you always say you want to do whatever can you to appeal to the independent voters and those

lines that you see and the concepts that are tested constantly by both campaigns are designed to appeal primarily to independents. that being said, again, what you don't want to appear to be is not aggressive and not defending your viewpoint and be perceived as backing down because if there's one thing that you don't want to lose in these debates is this idea of leadership. the american public values leadership above all. so sometimes you wind up having some voters say, well, i'm turned off by this because you don't want to appear to be backing down. >> frank, you must have been a teen-ager when you were prepping president reagan. thank you very much for your time today and your perspective. i appreciate it. >> i want to let our viewers know as well, remember, if you thought these clips you've been watching are good, i have a veritable cornucopia for you, the second presidential debate in its entirety will run

uninterrupted in the top of the hour. we're back right after this. [ ross ] we are at the bottom of the earth: patagonia, chile.

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when the president ran for office, he said that he'd put in place in his first year a piece of legislation, he'd file a bill

in his first year that would reform our immigration system, protect legal immigration, stop illegal immigration. he didn't do it. >> when we make this into a divisive political issue and when we don't have bipartisan support, i can deliver, governor, a whole bunch of democrats to get comprehensive immigration reform done and we have not been -- >> mr. president, let me move you on here, please. >> a lot of claims and counterclaims last night between the republican challenger and the president on the issue of immigration reform. listen, make no mistake, there is a rapidly increasing latino vote on the line for both of these men and that was not lost on mr. tom foreman, my colleague here at cnn, who has some of the best bells and whistles to cut through all the garbage and get through all the rhetoric and get right to the facts. so have a look and have a listen. >> republicans have been going after president obama for months saying he has not engaged the issue of illegal immigration.

listen to how mitt romney attacked him and how the president responded. >> why did he fail to even promote legislation that would have provided an answer for those that want to come here legally and for those that are here illegally today? >> we put more border patrol on than any time in history and the flow of undocumented workers across the border is actually lower than it's been in 40 years. >> this basic claim that president obama produced no immigration reform goes hand in glove with a bigger republican narrative which is that the president has been so concerned about getting latino votes, he hasn't wanted to secure the border and deal with illegal immigration. republicans like to point to figures like this from homeland security showing how many people have been arrested from being in the country illegally. back in 2000, 1.8 million. that's a lot. it me anders around through the bush years. but when you get to the obama years, it drops steadily down.

that's evidence, they say, he doesn't want to address the issue. but there's more to it. deportations, they started steadily moving up and in the obama years, look, they reached the highest level we've ever seen under any president. president obama embraced the policies of george bush when it came to securing the border down there. he continued the program to increase funding, to put more guards down there and more motion detectors and cameras, moe drones, more helicopters, more airplanes, so that now we have the help of an economic change where there aren't so many jobs here attractive, the pew hispanic centers says the net immigration is about zero. president obama can say he did something on that front. the idea that he promised comprehensive immigration reform, he did not deliver.

he did push the dream point at one act, to protect the children of people who came here illegal illegally, but in terms of the bigger package, that's something he'll have to deal with if he let's reelected. >> according to the pew hispanic center, the number of new eligible latino voters in the united states is up nearly 23% from only four years ago. you've been busy for a dead man. after you jumped ship in bangkok, i thought i'd lost you. surfing is my life now. but who's going to .... tell the world that priceline has even faster, easier ways to save you money. . . on hotels, flights & cars? you still have it. i'll always have it. so this is it? we'll see where the waves take me. sayonara, brah!

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it is hard to believe after hundreds of millions of dollars in campaign ads and news appearances, some folks are still out there stuck between these two candidates, just can't decide how to vote come november 6th. apparently an estimated 3% and 8% of you don't know what you're going to do on that. one of them joined us before the

debate yesterday and he's back again today after watching that rousing 90 minutes of sparring. nice to see you again, joe. did it do anything for you? did the debate help you? have you made up your mind? >> i have made up my mind. i have critickri crystallized m already. >> you want to let that out on national television? >> sure. i liked what obama had to say yesterday. i saw the fire in him i wanted to see. i like what he had to say about manufacturing and renewable energy. >> i want to play something for you that you mentioned on the show yesterday as i asked you about the reasons for being undecided and what might tip your decision making and it had to do with the cost of your education and how that affect how you vote. have a listen and i want to ask you on the other side about something. >> see how long i just started coege here at the community college, education is on the top of the list.

right now pell grants are keeping me in school right now. i know at one point i'm going to have to pay for my own school. it's really given me the boost and start to get going and on track with my life. >> so here is how the candidates both address the topic of education and pell grants last night, joe. have a listen. >> i want to make sure we keep our pell grant program growing. we're also going to have our loan program so people are able to afford school. but the key thing is to make sure can you get a job when you get out of school. >> i want everybody to get a great education. we worked hard to make sure student loans are available for folks like you but i also want to make sure community colleges are offering slots for workers to get retrained for the jobs that are out there right now and the jobs of the future. >> joe, was it the answers they gave on pell grants and education or was it the fire and brimstone that many of us are trying to figure out if it was effective, if it appealed to

you. >> what appeared was the renewable energy part of it. it's going to be available when i'm done with school. >> what about the aggressive nature of how these candidates came out last night. this is not your grandfather's presidential debate. why you affected by the aggressive nature? >> yes, i was. i liked the fire i saw in the president. i think that shows me what kind of a leader he is. >> you liked it, okay. that is not something i was expecting to hear. one last question. there's another debate, it's not even a week away. are you going to watch it and can you still be persuaded otherwise or are you set, you might even go get your ballot today? >> i still think i can be persuaded but i'm pretty set right now. we'll just see what happens. >> i'm going to mark you off a decided but maybe undecided voter then. joe, nice to see you. hey, thanks for doing this for

us yesterday and today. we appreciate your input and we appreciate your service to telling us how this works when it comes right down to the voter. >> thank you. >> if you are still undecided and you think you may have decided or missed the amazing television last night, stay tuned because we're going to replay the entire presidential debate. it's going to start in about 28 minutes from now. can you decide which candidate best represents you. back in a moment.

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we've got potentially 600,000 jobs and a hundred years worth of energy right beneath our feet with natural gas. we can do it in an environmentally sound way, but we've also got to continue to figure out how we have efficient energy because ultimately that's how we're going to reduce demand and keep gas prices lower.

>> if we do what i'm planning on doing, which is getting us energy independent, north american energy independence within eight years, you're going to see manufacturing jobs come back because our energy is low cost. >> some pretty big promises from both candidates. but i think everybody was waiting for an answer to the actual question that was asked. it was about whether the department of energy is supposed to be doing something to chip away at gas prices and if the president actually has that kind of power. i know somebody who can answer that question and her name is christine romans. i watched and thought christine was awake and throwing popcorn at the screen. >> i was watching for each of them to give a gas price promise and you only got bickering about drilling on federal lands, biggering about who has the best overall energy strategy and you didn't get a promise on gas prices and i'll tell you why. because presidents can't give

those promises. they can take gas out of the strategic petroleum reserve, that we don't go to war anyplace -- >> before you go beyond that, the strategic petroleum reserve, it's a giant gas tank -- >> we have emergency gas and oil. >> it's not just a little. we're at three quarters of a billion barrels, right? >> that's something a president can do but they were careful not to make a specific promise on gas prices. remember newt gingrich and michele bachmann -- let's look at where gas prices are today. gas prices are above $3 a gallon. look where they were when the president took office. it's because we were in the middle of a financial crisis. i asked ken rogoff about this

whole conversation about gas prices in the debate and whether presidents can control gas prices and make promises on gas prices and this is what he said. >> this just isn't something that the president of the united states controls no more than cans of soup or something. i can understand energy policy is really important, but the price of gas is just not something where the buck stops at the president's desk. >> christine, we're hear so much about just oil and gas drilling, if we just did more here in the united states, we could offset all sorts of problems, become more energy dependent. how much do we really have here compared to how much is out there and what opec would do to us? >> what these guys were arguing about last night is how to get more of what we've already got and they're arguing about drilling and drilling on federal lands. no question the united states is a huge energy resource. would just drilling lower gas prices? would drilling and higher efficiency standards lower gas

prices? would a lot of things? it's a big global market, right? and sometimes when you push the lever here, there's another lever like opec moving someplace else. and that's what ken rogoff was pointing out. sometimes it can be just demand from china -- >> it's not just the president who has the magic wand. >> it's not just the president. but you need smart energy policies for the long term. these two men just have different philosophies on that. >> thank you very much. if you want to watch the whole debate, including those comments on oil prices, energy, coal energy and the great debate over the philosophies, stay tuned because in about 21 minutes cnn will offer you a special encore presentation to the second presidential debate at the top of the hour.

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t minus 13 minutes. we're counting down to an encore of last night's presidential debate between president obama and mitt romney. wolf blitzer was anchoring our coverage. he joins me now with thoughts of what we were all watching and what we may see again. i want to do something different in terms of how to look at what we saw last night. there were several questions that just did not get specific answers from these candidates. i want to throw at least four up that our team identified who denied extra security for libya's diplomatic mission? romney's tax deduction, the specifics on that, how would we pay for those? number three, should the energy department have in its policy a

way to chip away at gas prices? and what would you do to create jobs? the first one, the answer to president obama's question who deneed the extra security in benghazi? >> let me first talk about our diplomats. they serve all around the world and do an incredible job in a very dangerous situation. these aren't just representatives of the united states, they're my representatives. i send them there, often times in harm's way. i know these folks and i know their families. so nobody's more concerned about their safety and security than i am. >> okay. here's my question for you, wolf. we did not get the answer to that question. we did not get a challenge from the governor as to why the president did not answer that question and instead the entire dialogue last night and today has been all about when the attack, the murders, let's just say them as they are, the murders were labeled a terrorist

attack. what's more important to me as a voter, when the label came out as to when this was a terrorist attack or how bewe're going to make sure our men and women are safe? >> i think that's critically important. mitt romney missed a huge, huge opportunity when the president in terms of state department security personnel. they wanted to beef up security at the u.s. consulate in benghazi. why was it not beefed up? that was pair phrasing the specific question. the president didn't answer that question. went to speak movingly about the four americans who were killed, but he didn't answer that question. romney made a major blunder. he should have said, mr. president, you never answered that question. there's sworn testimony from state department diplomatic security personnel before congress saying x, y, and z. you don't have an answer. whatever. he should have said. instead romney compounded that blunder by pointing out -- by

not pointing out that the presses president didn't -- then he raised the whole issue whaf the president did or didn't say in the rose garden the day after the ens dent when he did use the phrase acts of terror. romney said he never said act of terror, and then he get into this whole back and forth, what did the president mean and all of that, but that was a huge missed opportunity for mitt romney. number one, the bad label and number two, the question not being answered and both of these men ended up coming out the loser on that one. let me take to you question number two. the tax cuts that mitt romney has questioned about frequently. that came up again last night, and our big question is what tax deductions will be cut to pay for the romney tax plan? nobody really felt like there was a solid answer to that either. where does the voter go to get this kind of information, or do we just have to wait for round three in the big debate next week to see if there's going to be an answer there? >> well, there hasn't been a

really precise answer from neither mitt romney nor paul ryan. they've been asked repeatedly. you want to have this 20% across the board tax cuts for everyone. rich, middle class, poor, everyone gets a 20% tax cut. you want another 10% cut in corporate tax rates and all of that. how are you going pay for it? then there's just a generic discussion about, well, there will be a reduction in deductions, in tax credits, in loopholes, exemptions, but they don't get specific on that. at one point mitt romney said maybe there would be a cap on tee dee deductions. $25,000 a year or $50,000 a year. you put it all on a bucket. whether home mortgage, charitable contribution, child tax credits, university tax credits or whatever, health care, and he said $25,000 to $50,000. romney said $25,000. he isn't really giving a specific answer, and they both make the point, well, this is going to be subject to negotiations with the democrats in congress if they're elected,

and they don't want to put all their cards on the table right now. they want to work on a deal, so leave it for the negotiators. >> okay. it would be nice to see a list, whether it's mortgage interest deduction, charitable deductions, education deductions, or carried interest or perhaps capital gains. maybe we'll get some answers as we move along 21 days to election day. wolf, stay put. when you come back, i want to ask you about the gas prices and whose job is it to give us a break. after this. i gave birth to my daughter on may 18th, five days later, i had a massive heart attack. bayer aspirin was the first thing the emts gave me. now, i'm on a bayer aspirin regimen. [ male announcer ] be sure to talk to your doctor before you begin an aspirin regimen. [ woman ] learn from my story. before you begin an aspirin regimen. anncr: every president inherits few have faced so many. four years later...

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>> want to get you to some live pictures. this is a great live event taking place right now. at the podium you can see senator rob portman, and soon to take the stage in ohio is paul ryan, who is going to be contain campaigning in ohio. this is the baldwin wallace university, a liberal arts college methodist-related college, and this is, i believe,

the first event for paul ryan post-presidential debate, so it will be really interesting to see what he has to say about his colleague and running mate's performance last night. wolf blitzer is still live with me, and those four questions that we had asked before the break, i want to get back to question three, and it had to do with gas prices. should the energy department's policy be to lower gas prices? candy crowley had to ask this question four times, wolf blitzer, and neither one of these candidates could really come out with a good straight answer on this. is that effective to try to evade when you can't actually give a straight answer that's going to appeal to the entire voting block? is this something we just forget? >> well, there's a simple answer. the policy of the united states government is to reduce america's dependence on imported foreign oil to increase domestic production, including from all of the united states and north america, for that matter, from canada, from mexico, or whatever, and the less you need

to import the more you can produce here in the united states, presumably the price will go down, but having said that, the price of gases lean is based on the world market. there's a huge demand. it's the marketplace that determine ifs it's $3 a gallon, $4 a gallon or whatever, and there are various laws and taxes around the country. buying a gallon of gasoline, for example, might be much more expensive in new jersey -- there's a lot of variables that go into the price of a gallon of gas, but in general i think the answer should be simple. yes, the department of energy should try to work to reduce the cost of energy for the american people. >> and some pundits thought it was pretty political that the president -- i believe it was back in june -- tapped into the strategic petroleum reserve. i asked christine roman if that -- that's not a full scale way to attack that problem. it's a temporary thing, and it's

mostly -- >> it's awe very short-term solution. you have to have longer term solutions, and, look, they have various proposals. the president had some ideas. green energy, for example. romney had some other ideas, you know. opening up land for greater exploration. all these are long-term efforts to redees america's energy dependence on foreign sources and also reduce the price, but it's not by any means a simple solution. >> fourth question we felt we didn't really get full answers from either candidate, and that was what will you do to create jobs. there was jeremy. i think he was the 20-year-old college student who stood up to ask that question, but we didn't get the specifics other than i agree with pell grants and i agree with creating jobs. how did he feel both candidates came off on the question? >> you know, i thought it was a little -- one part of it was ail bit strange when jeremy asked that question. he was a college student, and he obviously wants a job, and then the president came back and said, you know, his goal was to create manufacturing jobs, and i was saying